Monster Hunter: End of an Era
by Madman6884
Summary: It's my first foray into storywriting, so it's no masterpiece, but I hope that fans of the series will enjoy it.Involves revenge, romance...kinda, and a coming armageddon. Writing tips welcome.
1. Prologue: Cometh the Black Shroud

Prologue: Cometh the Black Shroud

"Just a little closer." The hunter muttered under his breath.

He couldn't believe it, a three day stake out in its territory, and only just now was the party getting a chance at killing it. And now, the damn thing wasn't even going close enough to the bait to fall in the trap! He was really starting to get pissed about this. Here we have an extremely aggressive Diablos, already killed ten people in a week, yet the damn thing wasn't even brazen enough to just go for the meat!

"If he doesn't go for the bait," He whispered to the others, all of them huddled behind a large boulder," I'm gonna go out there and chop its damn head off myself!"

"Shhh! He's going for it..."his fellow hunter spoke.

Just then the Diablos took a cautious step toward the conveniently placed piece of meat before him. He slowly lowered his head to take the meat when...

WHAM! The metal rope tightened around his leg, pulling him off balance and slamming him hard onto the ground.

Then the hunters struck, charging in, attacking on all sides of the creature. One cut deep into its tail, quickly severing it and sending the Blos into a new wave of pain and further preventing it from regaining its footing.

The Blos struggled on the ground, feeling pain like it had never felt before in its long life. In a last ditch attempt to scare off its attackers, it let out a long, deafening screech.

The attackers immediately stopped...all except for one. The angry hunter walked up to its head, taking care to cover his ears with one hand and his shoulder. The Blos stopped screeching...its eyes widened in fear, as it saw the Great Sword falling towards its throat.

The hunters were ecstatic, this had to be one of the most well executed kills they had done in months, and now they had scales, spine bones, plates, bones, and two giant horns to show for it. Not to mention the large sums of Diablos meat that they were now feasting on under the moonlight.

"You see! I told you that patience would let us bring down that monster with ease; much better than just hacking at it!" he stated in an excited tone.

"I guess so...but it's just not as fun," stated the angry hunter. It bothered him, such a powerful beast, slain so easily, "he didn't even get a fighting chance."

"Who cares! As long as the wretched beast is dead!" shouted another hunter cheerfully.

Just then, a sudden burst of wind came over them, easily putting out the blazing fire they had burning. The wind blew for another few seconds then just stopped.

"What the hell...?" the angry man asked aloud.

Then another gust of wind came, stronger than the first, but it too died off quickly. Then another, and another, they just kept coming each one stronger than the last, and each one having less and less time between them, until it was like a hurricane, never letting up.

Then they saw it, a great figure in the sky, flying overhead..._looking down at them._ It became larger and larger, until it enveloped the sky from them. That was the last thing any of them saw: the great black wings of the legendary monster, blocking out even the stars...


	2. The Caravan

Chapter 1: The Caravan

The leader of the transport caravan was worried. They were easily half way to their destination, yet there hadn't been a single attack from anything. No Velociprey packs looking to make an easy meal of their Aptonoths, no Rath attacks, or even close encounters of any sort.

But at the same time, there was a nervous tension because of the simple fact that a very large Rathalos had been flying overhead for the past two hours. Another person in the lead wagon, an ecologist, was more fascinated than worried. This had to be one of the first of those Rath species in this area. The blue Rathalos and Pink Rathian species were first seen much farther south, but this male had to have been one of the first to have a territory this far north. Fascinating, if it was following them like this, it must be protecting its territory; and that would mean that it has a mate and possibly young out there somewhere.

It was unfortunate that, because it is the first of its kind in this area, it would probably be hunted as a trophy by some overzealous hunter...like the man sleeping in the seat behind him.

"Hey. Hey hunter!" the caravan leader shouted to no avail, he continued to sleep, "WAKE UP!"

He stirred before stating: "Jeeze, let me sleep, you don't need me to get to the city..."

"No we don't, but we do need someone who knows about monsters to be awake."

"What the hell for? You need me to tell you what their names are?", said the hunter, irritated.

"Don't be so damn rude, as a matter of fact, there has been a Los circling us for some time now, and it could attack at any moment!" griped the caravan leader, now visibly angered, "And we need someone to kill it if that's the case."

The hunter got out from under the wagon's tent and stood up. He looked up into the sky, blocking the sun with his hand. He watched the Rathalos glide for a good five minutes before he stated, "Unless you're worried that its scales are too colorful, and would blind you, there is nothing to worry about." This put a smirk on the ecologist's face.

"You're kidding right! It could attack at any mome...!"

The caravan driver was interrupted but a swooping noise and a soft thud. All the Aptonoths that were pulling the wagons stopped dead in their tracks. The Rathalos was clearly visible, calmly walking over to the caravan.

"See! I told you that it would attack! You call yourself a hunter?" Whispered the driver angrily.

The hunter spoke aloud, "Hold your horses old man, nothing to worry about, I'll take care of it."

He calmly picked up his Siegmund, sheathed it, hopped off the wagon, and walked over to the Los. They both stopped about ten feet from each other. The hunter looked at the wyvern calmly, noticing the deep scar on the side of its face; it had to have been made by a sword.

He spoke, raising his voice slightly, "There is nothing to worry about, get out of here!"

The Rath kneeled down slightly, all the watchers in the caravan could see it was going to charge. The hunter reached for the hilt of his sword, but did not draw it.

Then, the Rathalos spread its wings and flew off, as though nothing had happened.

There was no cheering for the hunter as he got back into his seat, only the silence of disbelief.

"That thing could have killed you in no time flat, you know?" asked the ecologist.

"Yeah but, thing is, they are a lot more docile than you would think, since I started hunting, I've had to kill only one."

"Hmmm...never seen someone so calm around a Los, I'm Cyrus, an ecologist," he said, "and...you are?"

"The names' Turel." And with that, he went back to sleep, as though nothing big had just happened.


	3. The City

Chapter 2: The City

As the caravan neared the city, all the passengers became anxious. Despite the fact that it has huge fortress walls all around it, you could easily see the looming castle. Damon was the largest cities for miles, and was the center of this kingdom.

The castle was placed directly in the center of the city, which was divided up into four equal sized sections by the walls that extended from the castle. These walls were designed so that the rest of the city could be sealed off if there was an attack. Along the castle in each section was another area of different uses, one was a coliseum of sorts, one was a bestiary, one was the personal grounds for royalty, and the last was the city's guild and defense building.

Because the city had no front gate, the caravan had to take the only true entrance (other than the many escape routes for the royalty); which was to go along the back side of the city, and down along the cliff that the city was situated up against, and have the carts brought up on a pulley elevator. This was no easy task of course, each Aptonoth had to be brought up by itself, and then each wagon, so it took some time.

Turel stepped up out of the wagon and into a section of the city's marketplace. He glanced at the city map to get his bearings on where to go; he thought, "Okay, I'm here, and the Inn is there, so I should go...this way."

He took off south, the Inn was in the upper-class section, right up against the wall that lead to the Bestiary, all he had to do was follow the main road and...

His train of though was interrupted by a violent push from behind, almost knocking him over. He whipped around to see who had the audacity to push him.

"Stay outta my way if you don't wanna be hurt fool." said a gruff voiced, large man clad in Hi-Metal armor, bearing a Graviton Hammer.

"And why is that? Afraid that you would be overshadowed?" Turel stated with a smirk..

"Heh, nope; it's just that I wouldn't have to kill you, nothing is gonna stop me from being a high ranked hunter in this city, not even some 'prodigy' hunter that knows how to stare down a Rath!" he began to walk off, but turned back to say, "Oh! And by the way, the name's Roth, remember it!"

After some trekking, he made it to the street the Inn was on, most of the streets in the city were like this one, three to four story buildings with roofs that jutted out quite a distance, only allowing a line of sunlight in. Despite this all the roads were quite wide. All of this was designed to lower damage and casualties in case of wyvern attacks; it barely proved to be needed, but it was better to be safe.

He began to walk towards the Inn when he heard another voice behind him, "Wait! Young man!" He turned to see Cyrus running up to him, out of breath, "I..almost...lost you...back there."

Cyrus was a pretty tall character, somewhere around six feet, and quite thin. His skin was pale from being indoors all the time, that along with his neatly cut light brown hair and spectacles definitely made him _look_ scientific.

"Out of breathe huh? You're out of shape, need to get out of your lab more often"

Cyrus caught his breath and they continued on," That's just why I want to talk to you!" said Cyrus, "I'm the chief wildlife researcher for this city, but we have a problem."

"Which is...?"

"We can't do anymore research on the monsters in the city's Bestiary, there is only so much you can learn about a monster that's been raised in captivity, and you can forget about studying a living wyvern for more than a couple days."

"So? Go out in the wild and watch them."

"That's where you come in, we don't have the tracking expertise to watch them for long periods of time, but someone like you, who understand not only Hunting, but the nature of Wyverns in the wild could be a great deal of help to us."

They reached the steps of the 'Sign of the Dragon' Inn, where Turel paused to think it over.

"Sorry, I would like to help, but I have my own agenda in this city, and it's a bit more important to me."

"Well whatever it is, I can help you. If it has something to do with this city, I can guarantee that I know what it is and where it is."

Turel paused again before speaking, "I'm looking for someone."

Cyrus responded, "Oh that's all? I know just about everyone here some way So what do you say? You help our research effort, and I help you find this person."

"Alright then, you got yourself a deal!"

"Wonderful! Glad to hear it! How about I meet you here tomorrow, around noon perhaps?"

"Yeah, that's fine, but if you don't mind, I'm tired, so I'm heading up to my room, and I'm gonna gets a good night's sleep."

"But you slept the whole way here..." but Cyrus was cut off by the closing of the Inn's door behind Turel, "interesting character, that boy."


	4. A Fateful Encounter

Chapter 3: A Fateful Encounter

Turel was awakened earlier than he normally would by a commotion outside the Inn. He glanced out the window looking at the morning daylight," Eight o'clock? Damn who would get up at this ungodly hour?"

Despite this fact, he arose, got together his baggage (consisting of his sword, armor, and other amenities), played the Inn-keeper and headed outside into the fray.

The streets were alive with the typical activity you would see in a city, but the most notable was the gossip that was going around. He listened in on a group of young women heading out into the square.

"I hear that the Royal Hunters just got back from catching a wyvern, one of those pest ones, what were they called?" asked one girl.

Her friend responded," Which one? The burrowing ones?"

"No, the ones with the red eyes, you know they can make light with their nose."

The third girl chimed in,"Ohhhh, a Gypceros!"

It was true, unlike just about every other wyvern species, Gypceros have no trouble surviving in this world where hunting had become a pastime. Most people kill the monster just for fun, and then don't even use the parts, leaving it there to rot, or even poisoning it to kill off even more life. Rathalos, Rathian, Gravios, Diablos, Monoblos, Kut Ku's, Plesioth; they will all die out. Species like Gypceros however will survive for many years. They are specialized to trick and deceive any attackers. Stretching tail, blood red eyes when angered to scare, nearly limitless energy, playing opossum, and a blinding light to stun enemies; all of this specialization will insure that they will live on many years longer than other wyverns. Unless that is, action was taken to preserve these amazing creatures.

Turel followed the girls toward a large mass of people crowding around the square. He left his luggage in a dark corner, taking only his sword, and pushed his way through the crowd. They were being kept a safe distance away from the "cargo" by a group of guards and three hunters. These three were obviously the Royal Hunters that he had heard about, the official hunters who were given orders directly by the King, the best of the best. If Cyrus couldn't come through for him, getting into their ranks would be his best chance of finding her. They consisted of a tall blonde man wielding a Crimson War Pike, clad in Los armor, a stocky gunner with jet black hair, sporting Titan Launcher and Gravios armor, and a dark haired woman wielding a Sieglinde and sporting Chain and Steel armor, she was obviously the leader.

The Gypceros was uneasy, the tranquilizers must have just worn off, as it seemed to just be waking up, but it already was showing nervousness from so many people. The two male hunters left, Turel made out something about "informing the guards to help bring in the cargo", leaving the lone woman alone along with some weak guards. Already there was a build of jeers and shouts toward the creature, which grew more uneasy as it got louder. What happened next was hard to remember. All that can really be said was that something was thrown at the rope-bound animal which set it off.

In an enraged panic, the Gypceros summoned forth its unbelievable energy and strength, fueled by a chemical similar to adrenalin, known only as power extract. The animal easily tore through the ropes that help it, and it charged into the crowd of people, sending some sprawling. The civilians scattered and fled, along with the guards," Idiots." He said in anger as he drew his blade.

As the people fled, it left only him and the Gypceros, its glowing eyes staring him down. He charged it, as he did he heard a low hissing sound, signifying that it was drawing poison into its mouth. He dodged out of the of this, spinning around he hit the Gyp with a side swipe, cutting deep into its chest. It countered this with a swipe from its tail, which he ducked under quickly and rolled away. It turned to try and charge him when their battle was interrupted by something falling onto the animal.

The female hunter from before jumped from the rooftops, landing on its back. She raised the blade over her head, and stabbed downward deep into its back. The Gypceros let out a loud cry of pain and collapsed onto the ground, she jumped off as this happened and turned to face the carcass.

Turel walked to its side and watched her, she took a glance at him before kneeling down to grab the stone mounted on its head. Its eye turned to look at her. Before she could take more than a step back, it thrashed about trying to quickly regain its footing. Turel sprung in, shoving her out of the way and brought up his blade, blocking the bone-crushing bite inches away from his skull. One quick swing cut deep into its throat, killing the animal as it flopped lifelessly to the ground.

He turned to the woman, who was walking over to him...and past him. She grabbed the Gyp's "horn" and pulled it off easily. Turel noted how muscular her upper body was, not a surprise given her weapon of choice. She began to peel back the flesh around it, revealing a brightly shining Nova Crystal.

"You know, for a hunter of your stature, I thought you would have known about the Gypceros' death feint." Turel said to her.

"I had everything under control, had you not stepped in I would have killed it myself." she stated blandly. He walked up to her, too close for personal comfort.

"Not from what I saw."

"Be that as it may, you had no right to stick your neck into Royal Hunter business. I've never even seen you here before, what makes you think that you are better than me?", but before he could respond, the other two hunters showed up with some castle guards, she didn't even spare him a second glance before walking off, ordering the guards to clean up the carcass. Turel didn't care though, he walked back off down the street to retrieve his gear, tossing the Nova Crystal up and down, talking to himself," I wonder how long it will take until she notices?"


	5. The Foreboding Blade

Chapter 4: The Foreboding Blade

Turel quickly returned to the spot where he had left his luggage to retrieve it, but it was no where to be found. "Damn, why did this have to happen? I swear if I find out who took it, I'll ki..." but his rant was interrupted by a scraping sound coming from nearby, it sounded a lot like his bag being dragged across the ground. He searched for the source of the sound and determined that it came from a narrow alleyway.

Despite that it was a narrow street, with the rooftops covering it completely, the sun made it in, giving the dark alleyway an orange glow. He searched for the whereabouts of the thief, and saw nobody except for a glimpse of a door closing, of course, he made his way inside. What Turel found in this building was a small weapon-craft shop, consisting mostly of rundown junk, this must be where the poor hunters go to get weapons. The would-be thief was talking to the clerk, probably trying to haggle off Turel's possessions, "HEY! Those are mine!"

The thief turned to face him, he was quite run-down looking, but not like a homeless bum, he seemed to be more of a shell of someone who had former glory. He wore basic civilian clothes, but was built quite muscularly for someone so worn-down. He had prominent cheek bones and a strong face, and short cut jet-black hair that parted off to either side of his forehead. Most notably were all of the scars and burn marks that covered his arms and legs. He spoke calmly," Don't worry, I wasn't trying to steal your things, and I merely brought them here to prevent someone else from doing so."

"Oh is that right, this is a pretty secluded place for a lost-and-found."

"Maybe so, but there is nowhere else in this town that is as trustworthy." he said gruffly.

"Well, I'll give you benefit-of-the-doubt then, hand it over."

Turel retrieved his items and bent over to check and see if everything was still there. The man noticed the Siegmund on his back," So you're a hunter…mind if I see that blade?"

Turel handed it over reluctantly; the man held it in his hands, spinning the blade around to look at it in all angles, "Such craftsmanship, good uniform thickness, sharp blade, light for its size...only one man I have met is this good. Do you know Omar from Augusta?"

"Yes, I'm from there in fact. He made that blade for me before I came here. He is a good man, and the best blacksmith I have ever met."

"Indeed he is, I have met him also. He is the only man that is capable of making the foreboding blade...the Eternal Annihilator." said the man, going into deep thought.

"Eternal...Annihilator? He told me that he only made one, for the best hunter he had ever met... you know who he made it for?"

He paused before answering,"...yes...yes I knew the man. His name escapes me at the moment, but he died a couple years back. Him and the old expert hunters for this city went on a routine Diablos hunt, but never returned... That man no longer exists."

This was a disappointment for Turel, although it wasn't what he came for, it would have been an honor to meet that man, and maybe even learn a thing or two from him. He thanked the man for watching his things (although he still didn't believe him) and turned to leave the shop. Before so, he turned around and asked, "Hey, by the way, my name's Turel, what's yours?

The man looked up at him and gave him a melancholy answer of, "My name...is Raziel."

As Turel left, Raziel turned back to the clerk, "Well that was awful, but how much can I get for this then?" he said as he placed a Nova Crystal on the table.


End file.
